Kelly Oubre Jr. didn’t need much convincing when Indiana came calling.
The veteran wing, now set to begin his first season with the Pacers, said the fit was obvious because the team checked every box he was looking for: pace, structure and a coach in Rick Carlisle who could put him in position to thrive. On the HoopsHype podcast with Cyro Asseo, Oubre laid out why the move felt so natural.
“For me, I have a lot left to give,” Oubre said. “My brand (of basketball) that I would choose to play would be the Pacers style. Fast-paced, little flare, and they have a great system in place, a great coach in coach Carlisle and they checked all the boxes for me with what I was looking for.”
Indiana wanted to strengthen its bench and add another wing, and Oubre brings exactly that after three seasons with the Philadelphia 76ers. He said he appreciated his time there, but the style in Indiana lines up better with how he wants to play.
“Philly was amazing,” Oubre said. “I loved my time there, and obviously there’s no shade, but it was a slower pace. I’m a wing, I like to run, I like to play in transition and Hali is like the best at that.”
Tyrese Haliburton was a major part of the appeal. Oubre said the two already had a relationship before becoming teammates, built through workouts with Drew Hanlen and shared agents, and that connection helped make Indiana an easy decision.
“We have a great partnership and a great friendship already off the court from working out with Drew (Hanlen),” Oubre said. “Having the same agents, this was a no-brainer for me. Just to be able to play with that fast paced team and get them back to the promise land.”
He was equally direct about Haliburton’s importance to what the Pacers do.
“He’s the head of the snake over here,” Oubre said. “To have a head of the snake with their head on their shoulders is very rare.
That played a big factor in it. He’s very mature, well beyond his years.
He’s very experienced now and he has some battle scars to show for it.”
At the same time, Oubre knows Haliburton is coming back after missing the entire 2025-26 season while recovering from a torn Achilles. He isn’t expecting a perfect return right away.
“Obviously I’m not expecting him to come back and just be his hundred-percent self,” Oubre said. “But I’m happy to be on his side to help him kind of get there and just give my insights on the game to him as well.”
That mindset fits with where Oubre is in his career now. After 11 NBA seasons and 352 starts, he still sees himself as a starter, but he also understands Indiana already has its core in place and that his job is to fit into it.
“I just want to help my team win,” Oubre said. “The team that I’m with now, they have a situation where I am a piece.
I am not one of the main pieces, but as long as I can start somewhere and work my way up, I’ll take it. I have never been given anything.
I’ve had to work for everything in my career.”
He didn’t shy away from saying what he believes he still is.
“I know at my level though, I’m a starter in this league,” Oubre said. “But at the end of the day, I’m on a team.”
Oubre also said his time in Philadelphia gave him something beyond on-court experience. He said the last three years built his resilience and confidence, especially after arriving there in 2023 on a veteran minimum contract during a tough stretch in his life.
“To the core of me, they built a lot of resilience,” Oubre said. “It built a lot of confidence within myself. Knowing that I could be asked to do one thing, but I could also show you all I’m here to do whatever you ask me to do.”
He added: “I kind of fell into their lap, cause I was going through a lot in my life,” Oubre said. “I signed that vet-min deal to go there, which I was grateful to Daryl (Morey) and (Nick) Nurse for calling me non-stop when I was really ready to give up.
It just built a new-found confidence in me that I could battle through adversity. I cannot know what tomorrow is going to look like and still go and bring myself and let everything play out.
It showed me a lot I didn’t know about myself at a younger age.”
There’s also a smaller, more personal thread tying him to the Pacers. Oubre said he remembered crying as a kid when Reggie Miller played his final NBA game, even though he wasn’t a Pacers fan growing up.
“I remember sitting at home. I was like eight years old, I just started playing basketball and Reggie Miller retired and I cried,” Oubre said. “I never was a big Pacers fan, but I did like Reggie Miller because he could shoot, he was nimble, played hard and he had passion.”
He said the memory came back recently when he realized where he was headed.
“He was the only player I’ve ever cried for when they retired,” Oubre said. “I remember sitting at home, watching it on TV and it was his last game.
I was crying and I thought about this the other day. I was like, ‘Wow, so I’m in Indiana now.’
So, there’s that little nugget.”
Now Oubre enters a new chapter with a clear understanding of what Indiana needs from him: energy, versatility and a willingness to fill whatever role the Pacers ask for. He may not be one of the team’s “main pieces,” as he put it, but he believes he’s in the right place to help push the Pacers back toward the postseason.
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